Summer Job(s)
by VTPM
Summary: Vector's attempts to get a job for summer.
1. Chapter 1

The last bell of the day finally rang and ever student in Heartland Academy screamed for joy and ran out the door. Vector sighed and followed more slowly, not wanting to be trampled.

He didn't understand why they freaked out so much. He was well aware of how school was a hell hole prison for children, but running around and screaming at the top of your lungs wasn't going to get you out of there any faster.

Vector stopped by his locker to pick up his bag that had been earlier filled with chemical compounds and other such possible deadly objects that he could think to throw in his bag that would fit and not be detectable by Dumon. The main reason for keeping them hidden from the grey haired Barian was that he's been caught sneaking pythons and rattle snakes to school before and it had not gone down well. Vector shuddered. Dumon could be pretty scary sometimes when he's really angry for being such a calm guy, and that's saying something if even Vector said that.

He smiled as he remembered his 'end-of-year-prank' and the other students' reactions.

Vector slammed his locker shut and giggled, thinking of how a good portion of the students had wet themselves.

He stopped laughing at the thought of having to face Nash and Dumon now. They were not going to be happy, and that was an understatement and a huge one at that.

Sighing, he walked out the school doors and met up with the other Barians outside by the school gate.

He rolled his eyes as he passed a group of girls who were crying and hugging each other, acting like it was the end of the world and they'd never see each other again.  
 _  
There's always next year_... He thought to himself.

That thought gave him mixed feelings though. He'd be happy because he'd get to prank more people but he really hated the classes. Shrugging, he decided it was worth it to see the people's reactions to his explosions and dangerous pets. (Snakes, spiders, venomous lizards, weasels, wild cats, diseased rodents, etc...) The list stretched out pretty long, and those were only the animals. He had plenty of non-living 'prank objects' as well.

Vector finally reached the gates and was met with the glares of his comrades.

"What?" He asked, trying to feign innocence.

They just kept giving him the death glare.

"What?" He asked again.

"You know what you did." Dumon growled.

Vector scuffed the ground with his foot. "Oops..." He said in his Rei voice.

"Oops?! You freaking filled the lunchroom with rattlesnakes!" Mizar yelled at him.

"Correction, there were diamond backs _AND_ boas." Vector said with a smirk.

"You honestly think I freaking care?! I almost died and I'm sure a lot of other kids almost did too!"

Vector shrugged. "If they really didn't want to get bit, then they should have moved faster."

Mizar was about to punch him, but luckily for Vector, Dumon stopped him, earning him a glare from Mizar. "What was that for?" He growled.

Dumon sighed. "You shouldn't fight in public. Wait to we get home."

Mizar gave Vector an evil smirk since he'd just gotten permission to beat the living crap out of him once they got home.

Vector's eyes stretched wide in terror, which was partially real and partially faked. He ran over to Dumon and started begging for him to change his mind. "He'll kill me!" Vector wailed.

"Would serve you right..." Mizar muttered under his breath, but Vector heard him and gave him a death glare.

Dumon didn't change his mind, though, saying it might do him some good and teach him a lesson.  
 _  
Yeah, getting beating to a pulp by Mizar is SO going to teach me a lesson...I won't even be alive by the time he's done!_ Vector thought in despair. _Well, if I'm going to die, might as well make the best out of this last day.._. He thought and quickly called out 'bye' and ran off down the street.

He started off by just randomly running down the street just to get away from the others, then began heading toward his favorite store, Jim's Fire Arms & Explosives. Vector absolutely loved the place because it sold weapons (Used for hunting but Vector was able to find many other uses for them) and fireworks for 4th of July and such. Even if he was too young to buy weaponry, Rank-Up Magic Barians Force made a wonderful substitute for a hunting license. The others had always wonder how he managed to get his weapons; they just assumed he stole them. He'd never tell them he used Rank-Up Magic to get them because he knew if he did, Nash would take the card from him and then he'd run out of ways to get his torture devices and would have to result to stealing, which is honestly no better than brain-washing someone into giving a psycho dangerous fire arms.

Looking through the window, Vector spotted the largest firework missile he'd ever seen. The sign next to it said, "For a limited time only!" Then he noticed the price. $2,000.

He pulled out his Rank-Up Magic card. _I'm sure they won't mind selling that to me. I bet I can have lots of fun with it._ Vector thought.

He jumped when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. "If you're thinking of buying anything from that store, you're badly mistaken." Nasch growled.

Vector looked at him sheepishly. "Um, I was just-"

"You were going to brain-wash them into giving it to you, weren't you?" Nash cut him off and when Vector opened his mouth to reply, Nasch said, "Never mind, I already know the answer." Nasch walked over to him and took the card from him. "I'll be keeping this."

"Hey! You can't take that!" Vector yelled at him.

"Yes I can. I'm your leader, if you've forgotten." Nasch said snarkily.

Vector put on a pout face. "When can I get it back?"

Nasch looked into the store and noticed the fireworks. "You were going buy that, weren't you?"

Vector hung his head. "Yeah..."

Nasch smiled when he got an idea. "I'll tell you what, you can buy your card back from me."

He gave Nasch a death glare. "No way. You can't make me buy my own thing back from you!"

When Nasch didn't reply, Vector groaned. "Fine, here." He said, handing him a twenty dollar bill.

"You'll need more than that." Nasch scoffed.

"What?! How much do you want?!" Vector asked in disbelief.

"Two thousand dollars." He replied matter-of-factly.

"No. Freaking. Way."

"Two thousand or you're not getting it back."

"How the hell am I supposed to get two thousand bucks?!" Vector screamed at him.

"I don't know, ever heard of a little thing called a job?" Nasch responded sarcastically.

Vector was fuming at this point. "Yes, I'm aware of the existence of jobs." He spat.

"Then get one and you'll be able to buy it from me."

"You expect me to waste my summer working to get back what's mine?!"

Nasch smirked. "Yes. Maybe then you'll think twice before using it on illegal and dangerous things you shouldn't have."

Trying desperately to calm himself, he said, "Fine, I'll play you're little game, but don't expect it to change anything."

"If you do get it back and I find out you're abusing it's power again, I'll just take it again. I do hope you're aware of that." Nasch warned.

"Then you just won't find out." Vector growled.

"I don't have to give it back to you at all, you know." Nasch said, his voice still full of warning.

Vector groaned. "Fine. I will no longer use my Rank-Up to buy deadly weapons." He said with his one hand raised, as if swearing on a bible, but secretly had his fingers crossed behind his back. "There, happy?"

Nasch nodded hesitantly. "And if I find out you're stealing or 'borrowing' money from others, I'll up the price to $4,000 and I'll personally make sure you're earning the money yourself."

Vector nodded and walked off, silently cursing at Nasch under his breath.  
 _  
This summer is going to suck._.. He thought.


	2. Chapter 2

After walking away from Nasch, Vector had instantly went to looking for a job. The faster he got his Rank-Up Magic back, the better.

He'd been wandering around for about an hour before he came across a 'for hire' sign.

Vector looked up at the name of the building. Heartland Post Office.

Vector reluctantly pushed open the doors and walked inside. After all, it was better than nothing, right?

He strolled casually up to the man at the desk. "Hello, how may I help you?" The man asked, who's name tag read 'Carl'.

"Um, I'm here about the job offer." Vector replied.

"Oh, right." Carl mumbled and handed him a piece of paper. "Please fill out this application and hand it back when you're done. We'll get back to you as soon as possible to let you know if you got the job or not."

Vector nodded and took the paper from him. It was fairly long so Vector decided to take the paper home and do it later.

When Vector finally did reach the door to the place he was sharing with the emperors, he had completely forgotten about Mizar going to kill him and just walked in. He quickly remembered when he found Mizar waiting in the living room with a baseball bat.

Vector tried to sneak past him, but there, of course, had to be that one random squeaky floorboard that is extremely loud and he just had to step on it.

Wincing, he turned to see Mizar glaring at him. "Hi..." Vector said weakly and waved.

"You were trying to get past without me noticing weren't you?" He growled.

"Maybe..." Vector said, sliding towards the stairs.

Mizar instantly noticed and ran at him, bat raised.

Vector screamed and ran for his life up the stairs. As soon as he hit the top, he sprinted for his room and attempted to lock Mizar out, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. As long as it bought him time, he'd be willing to do it.

He was right about it being worthless though. Mizar simply teleported into his room.

Vector screamed again and ran out of the room, truly terrified. Vector opened the portal to the BARian and dove through it. Mizar wouldn't dare attack him in public, right? He really hoped not.

After spending the night at the BARian, Vector decided he'd stay there a few days, hoping that Mizar wouldn't want to kill him any more. In his free time, he'd filled out the job application and sent it back to the post office. Now he was just waiting for the results.

~A Few Days Later~

Vector had finally went back to the Barians' house and luckily wasn't murdered by Mizar, just badly bruised.

He was sprawled out on his bed with his head phones on, rocking out with one of his favorite bands, Disturbed, when Dumon came in and shoved an envelope at him, before turning around and leaving.

Pausing the music, Vector slipped the head phones off so they were dangling around his neck and tore open the envelope. Inside was a letter from the post office and quickly skimmed over the words until he found the ones he'd been looking for. 'You're hired'.

Vector jumped up and yelled, "YES!" He really wasn't thrilled about being hired, only that he was one step closer to getting his Rank-Up Magic Barians Force back and getting the fireworks too.

He read over the letter again better to figure out the details about the job. He started tomorrow at 3 P.M. as a delivery boy to hand out mail. _Better than sorting mail, I suppose_... He thought.

~Next Day~

Vector threw open the post office doors and walked inside. After a short talk with the boss, which turned out to be more of a lecture, he finally got his route and a bag full of envelopes. He started out the door and looked at the route sheet to see where he was supposed to go first.

When he finally figured out the direction to head in, he started off at a brisk pace. He knew he'd have to practically run the whole time or walk very quickly to get everything  
delivered on time. He hated that he had to run and was aware of how out of breath he'd be by the time the route was over due to it being a fairly long list. Vector didn't see why they couldn't have lent him a bike or _something_. Anything would be better than walking.

After about 10 minutes and a crap load of walking, he saw in disappointment how slowly the letters were disappearing from the bag. He wished he had faster means of transportation and would use his powers to help, but he couldn't because of all the people crowding the streets. Nash had demanded they not show any of their powers unless it was to someone who already knew. Besides, Vector really didn't want to have to explain how he was teleporting either.

He soon found himself in a bit more of a suburb-like part of the city on the outskirts of Heartland when he heard a familiar, most dreadful, fear-raising sound.  
 _  
No. No, it can't be.._.. Vector thought, frozen to the sidewalk.

But the sound continued. In fact, it got _louder_.  
 _  
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no_... He kept repeating in his head while slowly turning around.

There, standing behind him, was not one, not two, but _three_ large dogs.  
 _  
Maybe they're friendly_. He tried to tell himself.

Vector still remembered all too well of how much dogs hated him from the time he spent pretending to be 'Rei'.

Shaking slightly, Vector tried to back away peacefully but as soon as he moved, the dogs jumped at him.

He screamed and ran down the street, trying to get as much distance between him and the dogs. They chased him all the way down the street because their owner apparently decided it was a good idea to not have them on leashes.

After turning another corner, Vector looked over his shoulder and saw they were catching up and fast too.

Looking ahead for an escape route, Vector spotted a tree and launched himself up it, fast as a squirrel. He even surprised himself at how fast he'd gotten up in the branches, but he was too scared to focus on it.

He stayed in the tree, trembling and trying to regain his lost breath, hoping the dogs would get bored and leave.

But they didn't.

Getting a stupid idea, Vector jumped out of the tree and started running again.

The dogs let out excited barks and instantly began chasing him again.

After a while of running, Vector finally began putting some distance between himself and his furry pursuers.

Then, the unspeakable happened.

Vector had looked over his shoulder again to see if they had given up yet, which they hadn't, and ran into a light pole while not looking. He collapsed on the ground and groaned, rubbing his head where it had collided with the metal post.

The dogs were on him in an instant, biting and ripping at his jacket.

Vector thrashed and used his powers to knock them away before they shredded him.

He was about to start running again when he realized his bag of letters were gone. Vector looked back at the dogs, who where lost in a flurry of shredded paper and cloth.  
 _  
There goes the rest of the mail and the bag_... Vector thought, hoping the people at the post office wouldn't be too mad.

He took the long way back to the office, pleading in his mind the canines wouldn't start tracking him down.

Vector finally arrived at the building and walked inside. He made his way to the back and explained what happened to the boss. He was not in the least happy with the lost mail and had absolutely zero sympathy for Vector nearly being shredded.

Vector left the office soon after explaining, the words 'you're fired' ringing in his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Vector had just gotten home from being fired from the post office and was already facing torment. It was bad enough he'd been fired from a freaking post office _and_ was attacked by possibly rabid dogs, but now he had Alito and Mizar laughing at him like it was the most hilarious joke in the universe. He knew Nasch would probably start laughing too, once he found out.

Grumbling and cursing under his breath, Vector stalked upstairs in attempt to get away from his immature comrades, not that he himself was always mature.

Collapsing on his bed, he tried to decide what he should do next.

He decided he would just have to hope he could find another job that was hiring tomorrow.

~Next Day~

Early the next morning, Vector made sure to get the newspaper before Dumon so he could check the job section.

As soon as he walked out to get the paper, he was reminded of the post office incident and getting fired yesterday. Trying hard to ignore it, he went back into the house and started flipping through the pages until he found the one he was looking for.

Reading over it, Vector couldn't find any desirable jobs, not that he expected any of them to be. After using the 'process of elimination' he'd learned from Heartland Academy, he settled on one that seemed like it would be the most boring job in the universe but also the safest: A library checkout clerk.

Knowing this was going to be embarrassing, he decided to leave early to see if they were open and if he could hurry up and get hired.

When he got to the library, he found they were open, but whoever was supposed to take the application papers hadn't arrived yet but should shortly.

Bored, Vector went to the computer section and looked up what sort of things he'd be expected to do as a clerk anyways.

He clicked a link called The Top Library Clerk Skills and read the headings. Computer skills. He could do that. Education. That was nearly insulting. Of course he was educated! Ordering skills. He figured he'd be able to figure it out eventually. People skills...  
 _  
Well, I'm doomed._ He thought as he read the last heading. He was _not_ a huge people person. He knew he had to give it a shot though, or try one of the other far worse and much more potentially dangerous jobs.

Just as he closed the page, the other worker told him that the application person would see him then.

Sighing, he got up and followed the worker into a small office with a woman about the age of maybe 70 (Though she looked more like 1,000,000 years old...). Unlike at the post office, (Which brought back more embarrassing and painful memories which lead to him realizing he probably wasn't going to let that go for a while) she didn't have a name tag so when she didn't say anything at first, Vector began to wonder if she was waiting for him to say something or if she was blind and hadn't heard him enter. After all, she wasn't paying him any mind and hadn't looked up when he entered so the whole blind proposition seemed to be the more likely one.

He fidgeted impatiently and waited a few more seconds before saying, "Uh, hello?" He was barely able to keep himself from waving a hand in front of her eyes too, just to see if she was blind or not.

She looked up at him with a look that, put in the kindest of words, could only be described as extremely unfriendly.

She closed a book that she'd been reading and set it on the table. He guessed it'd probably been on her lap is why he hadn't seen it.  
 _  
Oh crap._..He thought, knowing for sure she wasn't blind. After all, she had been _READING A BOOK_. Vector couldn't think of any time he'd been more glad to not have done something in his life. After all, if he had waved his hand around in front of her, it would have already sealed the deal that he wouldn't be hired.

"You're here for the job, I presume?" She asked, finally talking, which was a huge relief to Vector. Waiting in awkward silence like a few moments ago had really got to him, like that itch you feel in the back of your brain and just wish you could crack open your own skull to scratch it.

He quickly nodded, beyond eager to get this over with and get out of the uncomfortably small room.

She didn't seem too thrilled about that and muttered something under her breath that sounded oddly similar to 'impatient little brat'. It took all of Vector's will power to not cuss her out right then and there and he managed to stay in the wooden chair, though he did noticeably clench his fists.

"What makes you think this job will suit you?" She continued, still seeming not at all thrilled at the prospect that he was even there.

"Well, I just love books." He stated sarcastically, not sure what he was doing. As soon as those words left his mouth, he desperately wished he could take them back, get a do-over. But is was far too late by then and erasing his words were impossible. (Unless he had his Rank Up, but he didn't, so...)

That single statement didn't seem to be enough for her, because she continued staring at him, as if waiting for something more.

"And, I, er, also..." He blanked out and tried to remember back to the skills he'd need to have this job, but the fact that she was still just glaring at him was actually really unsettling and he couldn't get his thoughts in order. It was like she was willing him to fail the interview with her own thoughts. If she was, she was succeeding greatly.

At this point he decided to just shut his mouth since he was just making a complete fool of himself trying to find words out loud instead of in his head. He just wished he could disappear into the chair he was sitting in, or even better, if he could travel back in time to stop himself from trying to get hired here in the first place.

Seeing he wasn't going to further his answer, she said, "Very well, moving on...What qualities do you have that would even give you the idea that you have a chance of even the slightest to get a job here?"

Though it was said in a formal manner, Vector could easily pick out the hidden insult.

Swallowing both his anger and utter frustration, he replied, "Well, I..." Again, his mind went entirely blank. He knew he was totally screwed.

Being the deceitful genius he was, he decided to take a new approach on this.

"All right, how about you hire me and I will make things easy on you." He said, hoping to get a reaction out of her that wouldn't be anything along the lines of anger.

"Are you seriously trying to bribe me?" She asked, still completely collected and not even slightly phased.

"Maybe..."

"It won't work." She said, back to her harsh glare.

Vector was tempted to just walk out now. He obviously didn't have a chance. But he still decided to give it one last, desperate try.

Getting into his 'Shingetsu' persona, he said in the most pathetic, pleading voice he could, "Please, I really need this job. My friend's in the hospital and needs money for an  
operation and I need a job to raise money, but I haven't been able to get one." He broke down in to fake tears to add effect.

"Acting won't get you a spot here."

Vector looked up in surprise. Not many people didn't fall for his acts.

He started fidgeting again, wondering why she hadn't just kicked him out yet. He'd obviously screwed up big time, so why was he still here?

He was about to just leave when someone walked in the room; the worker from earlier.

"What's taking you two so long? Is something wrong?" The worker asked.

"No, everything's fine. In fact, I've just come to the decision to hire him."

Vector gaped at that and nearly yelled 'what?!' her, but was simply too shocked to say anything.

"That's great! Good luck." The worker said before leaving the room.

"Why...?" Vector asked when he finally got his voice back.

"I'll give you a shot. But just so you know, one wrong move and I'll have you out the door so fast-"

Vector quickly nodded and cut her off by saying 'okay', earning himself another glare.

"You start immediately." She said and led him to a counter by a computer and told him the basics, which he blanked out half way through.

As soon as she left, Vector got bored extremely quickly, almost instantly. He wasn't the biggest book fan and definitely didn't feel like reading at the time. Instead he pulled out his head phones and started blaring his music, drowning out any other sounds. It at least gave him something to pass the time.

After helping a few people check stuff out, he looked at the clock only to realize the time was passing unbearably slow.

Then a phone next to him started ringing, which he hesitantly picked up. "Hello?"

The person on the other side of the call asked to order some book Vector'd never heard of before. Staring at the computer, he had no idea what to do to help the person.

"Um, I'm new here. I don't know how..." He said and hung up. He knew whoever that was probably wasn't very happy, but he didn't care at this point.

Another hour passed of pure torturous silence. He would have had his music on, but his battery had died and he needed to wait for it to recharge.

He leaned back in the chair and started falling asleep from pure boredom, when a sudden crash was heard near the back of the library.

Vector got up to go see what had happened and found a small book shelf had been knocked over and was laying on it's side, the books it'd been holding scattered over the floor. He saw two kids running away and laughing.

Cursing, he followed them to try and get them to pick the books up. After all, there was no way _he'd_ do it.

When he caught up, he was shocked to see the two boys shoving all the books off all the shelves around them.

"Hey!" He yelled, frustrated that they were making this already miserable job worse.

The kids looked up and started running away again, which, having nothing better to do and not wanting to be fired again, Vector chased after them to attempt to make them stop.

After a little while, he lost sight of them. Growling in frustration, he started searching ever single row of shelves.

As he was walking, a book suddenly hit him on the head. Then more started falling.

Looking up, he was not prepared for what he saw; the entire 7 foot tall shelf next to him was tilted over and falling right towards him.

He was momentarily frozen, though he wasn't sure if it was shock, fear, panic, or a combination of all of those that kept him in place.

At the last second he was able to use his powers to teleport out of the way.

By this time the two kids who'd caused this destruction had already ran out the door.

The old lady who had hired him was now standing there, glaring at him.

"Um, I know this looks bad but it's not what you think." Vector said, hoping she'd give him a chance to explain.

"Out." She spat.

Vector hung his head and trudged out the door.  
 _  
That went well.._.. He thought miserably. The worse part about it was that it wasn't even his fault. _I was just trying to do the right thing, and look what it's gotten me. And the others wonder why I'm always making trouble. At least when I'm punished it's because I deserved it._ _Plus I get to annoy the heck out of people, which is hilarious._

Sighing, he walked home, dreading the torment he'd face as soon as Mizar, Alito, or Nash found out, which he knew was inevitable...


End file.
